GWOT GeeWhat? 0
General William Odom, USA (Ret.), on the Global War on Terror and George W. III:
Burke was outraged that the American Treason Act provided for a partial suspension of habeas corpus and enabled the king’s administration “to confine, as long as it shall think proper, those, whom that act is pleased to qualify by the name of pirates.” Thus they could be “detained in prison…to a future trial and ignominious punishment, whenever circumstances shall make it convenient to execute vengeance on them under the colour of that odious and infamous offence.”
If one thinks of the Guantanamo prison and changes “piracy” to “terrorism,” then Burke’s charge sounds surprisingly contemporary. The “terrorism” label is a source of great mischief in U.S. policy today. So-called acts of terrorism are crimes if committed within a U.S. jurisdiction; they are acts of war if committed from abroad against U.S. citizens or interests. In other words, we have more precise terms for so-called terrorist acts, words far more appropriate for legal statutes.
Terrorism is a political label intended to whip up anger against one’s enemy, not to ensure justice in the due process of law. Shouting furiously at the world about the evils of “terrorism” makes the United States look hypocritical, if not downright silly and incompetent.
